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Want to know what is on our minds? Find blog posts written here, by the City Club staff, members, and partners. Every week you can find a new edition of #FreeSpeech in the News — a collection of related stories, commentary, and opinions on free speech in the 21st century that’s making the news. You’ll also find takes on current events, past forums, and issues surrounding Northeast Ohio. Read on for all things City Club.

#FreeSpeech in the News: Oct. 17, 2016

As the Citadel of Free Speech here in Cleveland, we work to protect and promote the basis of our democracy by sharing related stories, commentary, and opinions on free speech in the 21st century. Here's what's making the news - and what you should know about - this week.

“It’s a very basic form of speech, asking your fellow human beings for help when you’re in a desperate situation… And it deserves, as much as any other speech, to be protected.”

“We’ve been conditioned to not talk about our religious and political views at work because it can disrupt conformity. And, that’s where the problem lies. When we don’t talk about our views and why we believe a certain way, we start to make assumptions about what other people believe. This often leads to us believing that others are judging us–or disagreeing with us.”

“The conventional wisdom surrounding American college life these days views campuses as hotbeds of intolerance for free speech, with subtends themselves leading the charge.

But a new report by PEN America… questions that story line while warning of a different danger: a growing perception among young people that cries of “free speech” are too often used as a cudgel against them.”

“’We should have a free speech demonstration, so we had one for Trump,’ Caro said. ‘We were bothered by the Trump piñata, but we do understand it is their first amendment right, and we thought we would just exercise our first amendment right.’”

“University campuses are now home to a plethora of speech restrictions. From sidewalk-sized ‘free-speech zones’ to the criminalization of microaggressions, America’s college campuses look and feel a lot more like an authoritarian dictatorship than they do the academic hubs of the modern free world.”

“Donald Trump talked about lower tuition and a dramatic student loan repayment plan Thursday at a rally in Ohio, but his loudest applause came when he promised to protect the right to free speech on campus.”